The functions of portable electronic organizers and mobile communications devices, such as mobile telephones, are increasingly being incorporated into a single mobile device. As such mobile devices incorporate more functions, they become proportionately more valuable not only to their owners, but also to prospective thieves. A thief could attempt to steal such a mobile device to make use of the mobile telephone function, or of the electronic organizer function, or both. Where the mobile device stores sensitive data entered by an authorized user, the potential for that data to be read by a thief is particularly troubling. The sensitive data could be even more valuable than the device itself.
When a mobile telephone is stolen, the owner of the telephone can contact a service provider to report the theft and to cancel telephone service. For mobile devices that provide little more than telephone service, that cancellation may render the device useless to the thief. Canceling telephone service, however, could be insufficient to deter the theft of a more robust mobile device, such as a device that offers personal organizer functions in combination with telephone service. Even if the telephone service were canceled, the thief could make use of the personal organizer function and read any data stored on the mobile device. Accordingly, thieves of mobile devices may not be fully discouraged by the cancellation of telephone service.